STRIP SCRIBBLES
*Exactly as Luxe Life predicted: Boston Celtics superstar Paul Pierce, who was voted Most Valuable Player in last week’s championship victory over the LA Lakers, and owns a condo here, brought his team-mates to town. All 16—the entire roster—were on hand at the weekend WBC lightweight championship fight at Mandalay Bay. They watched Manny Pacquiao win by TKO at 2:24 in the 9th round over David Diaz and make boxing history becoming the first Asian to win title belts in four weight classes. Also at the fight Black Eyed Peas star Will I Am, boxers Mike Tyson, Sugar Shane Mosley and Fernando Vargas, former NBA all-star Kendall Gill and singer Steve Lawrence who will take over the late George Carlin’s August dates at the Orleans. Paul along with Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Sam Cassell, also partied hearty at the Palms pool bungalows.
*Now that Bette Midler has returned to another run of her The Showgirl Must Go On production at The Colosseum in Caesars Palace she has begun her exploration of our city’s attractions.
After appearing on The View with Barbara Walters (see our top story above) she toured the Liberace Museum raving afterwards about the costumes, cars and jewelry. Midler then treated some of the cast of her show to a night at the Tryst nightclub after dining next door at Steve Wynn’s famed Wing Lei Chinese restaurant.
* Star Surveillance: Superstar-chef Wolfgang Puck’s Spago restaurant is still the top celebrity hangout even after 14 years. All on the same day, our spywitnesses spotted, master illusionist Siegfried of Siegfried & Roy making a meal of it with manager Bernie Yuman while Bette Midler was at a nearby table and then comics David Brenner and Bobby Slayton laughed it up with each other and the waiters over Wolf’s delights. …
Newcomer Katy Perry, best known for her new N0. 1 hit song “I Kissed A Girl” got lots of adoring fans congratulating her when she went to see rockers Gym Class Heroes at their jam-packed Joint concert in the Hard Rock Hotel. … Basketball stars LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Chris Paul of the New Orleans Hornets were at the draft party in Jay Z’s 40/40 Club at The Palazzo. … Private Practice star Taye Diggs was at Tao nightclub just a few tables away from So You Think You Can Dance choreographer Wade Robson, who danced up a storm and I’m told is hatching a secret new adult cabaret dance show here on the Strip. … Actor Branscombe Richmond took his wife and two children for supper at Nove Italiano in the Palms Fantasy Tower.